My review of 'Re-Animator'

Source: http://freewebs.com/mhreanimator

Hope you enjoy it!

RE-ANIMATOR (1985)
(Directed by Stuart Gordon)

"It has a severed head performing oral sex on a chick..."- Signed by MartialHorror.

Plot: A med-student’s new roommate has the secret to bringing the dead back to life. The problem is they become murderous, freaks of nature in the process.

Review:

I’m torn. Is “Re-Animator” a great movie or a good movie? I guess it’s something in between. I had seen the movie long ago back when I was an innocent child. Or at least innocent compared to now. Back then, I’d watch movies like “Friday the 13th”, where someone kills people. Now I seem to watch movies like “The Untold Story”, where a dude kills a girl by raping her with chopsticks. All I could remember about this movie was a guy using his severed head to perform oral sex on a girl. I suspect the cut I just watched trimmed that out, as he’s stopped before he can go all the way through with it. Or maybe not and I was even more messed up than I thought if I’m remembering it that way. I could also vaguely remember the finale in general. This is because that was the only time the movie goes all out. As a kid, I knew nothing of effective acting, spectacular special effects and surprisingly clever comedy.

Nope, as a kid the only thing I could appreciate was outrageous gore……and apparently some dudes severed head performing oral sex on a girl……."Re-Animator” has both, you just have to be patient.

Dan Cain(Bruce Abbot) is a promising med-student whose greatest trait is his appreciation of life. Naturally this is put to the test when his new roommate, Herbert West(the delightful Jeffrey Combs), reveals he can bring back the dead. Dan must decide whether or not it’s the right thing to do, but nothing goes as planned. He and his girlfriend, Megan(Barbara Crampton), find themselves caught in a bad situation that’s about to get worse.

I’d describe “Re-Animator” as this: Imagine “Frankenstein” on steroids in an Italian splatter film except it’s not Italian and a dudes severed head performs oral sex on a girl…….God damn, I need to get the last part out of my head. It’s also very tongue in cheek too……maybe I should’ve said that last one instead of the oral sex part...or should I say tongue in vag-.....no. So what makes “Re-Animator” such a cult classic? First, let’s cover the films incredibly grotesque creativity.

The film isn’t just gory. It’s freaking disgusting at times. I drew some comparisons to Italian splatter films because you usually don’t see this kind of stuff in American films. “Hellraiser” came close, but “Re-Animator” seems to be drawing inspiration in terms of gore from the works of Lucio Fulci(“City of the Living Dead”, especially) at the time. Yet the film comes out more like Lamberto Bava’s “Demons”. There’s something raw and incredibly painful about the gruesomeness. It’s never clean and it’s never easy. When people die, it hurts and you feel it. While I wouldn’t call this movie scary(Stuart Gordon’s next film, “Dolls”, was scarier), the visceral gore almost made me scared about what this movie was going to do next to its poor characters.

Yet it’s the humor that gives the movie some class, and ultimately drives the films more……creative moments. You’ll have scenes where the aforementioned severed head is trying to get his body to do something but it starts bumping into walls and stuff. It’s a pretty conventional gag that probably would’ve been annoying in a comedy feature. But because “Re-animator” is a horror film first and the gore effects on display are so ghastly and effective, it’s quite shocking to see it played for laughs and I felt this made the movie funnier. You can almost see the filmmakers making up some of these ideas, some just clever(Megan telling Dan “no, no, no” when he’s necking her, then cutting to her moaning “yes, yes, yes” as they’re having sex) to just downright freaky(almost every gore gag). It must’ve been a blast to be involved in this movie.

Yet……..something seems lacking. There are a few problems, but they’re mostly minor. One scene near the start of the 3rd act has Dan and Megan acting too melodramatic. It’s cheesy for the wrong reasons, but no biggie, it’s one scene. Another issue I have is how quickly the Dean(Robert Sampson) turns on Dan. He seems to have a high opinion of the boy and it suddenly turning sour felt contrived. I suspect the cut I saw is more to blame, as it felt like some scenes were missing. Yet once again, it’s a minor complaint. So what’s the big deal?

I kept thinking about “The Howling” in that the film never really goes far enough with its potential. For the most part, the film teases us with possibilities but doesn’t go far with them until the end, and when it seems the film is about to go even farther- It just doesn’t. The blame obviously lies within the films low budget and the limitations of what you could do with special effects at the time. The werewolf in “The Howling” looks great, for example, but you can’t do much with it in action. The severed head-monster is pretty much the same way. It was apparently a bitch to do on its own, but what you can do with it is limited. I guess the end result is that the film seems a bit too small scale. Perhaps the sequels would take everything farther, but from what I hear, they’re mediocre at best. Well……hey, at least they didn’t get “Howling II: Your Sister is a Werewolf”…right? Luckily, while the film rarely becomes great because of this, it still is good. Gordon does a good job with the suspense and the humor, so things don’t become boring. Plus, “Re-Animator” has something that “The Howling” lacked…..

It has………Jeffrey Combs……and a severed head performing ora- NEVER MIND!

I suspect “The Curse of Frankenstein” was a pretty big influence on this, mainly because West (who is the resident Dr. Frankenstein) seems more akin to Peter Cushing’s Dr. Frankenstein than Colin Clive’s Dr. Frankenstein. Like Cushing’s character, there’s something about West that makes him likable even when he does unlikable things. Like Dan (who is the resident Paul), we’re appalled at his actions but can’t take our eyes away. Combs makes sure to inject all the intensity he can into the role without going over-the-top and he’s fascinating to watch- whether he’s being the villain or hero(and he can be both). The way the character plays off everyone else is awesome to watch as well. A subtle trait about Dan is his love for life(him not giving up on an obviously dead patient is the first image of him that we see) which contrasts with West's obsession with death. The differences between West and Megan are more broadly drawn(mind vs heart) but the coolest contrast is between West and Dr. Hill(David Gale). It’s a classic case of old(outdated) vs new but Dr. Hill is not to be trifled with either. Gale matches Combs in his intensity and whereas West is not especially evil(he’s not as bad as Cushings Frankenstein), Hill is more unsympathetic(plus, we learn Hill has his strengths as a doctor by the end of the movie). So that makes it easier to root for West, because there is a much truer villain.

In fact, if the movie is great, I’d say it’s because of Jeffrey Combs portrayal as West. The actors are all good, mind you, and they make their characters more interesting and sympathetic. But Combs steals the show and makes the films events more compelling. Without him, you have a good movie with some great gore and some morbidly humorous moments. There’s a glee about “Re-Animator” that makes it a must see for all fans of horror……Even if I’m not sure if it’s a great movie. But I’ll rate it as such because Combs tips the rating a little higher.

Plus……It has a severed head performing oral sex.

Violence: Rated R worthy. It’s very disgusting.

Nudity: Yeah, there’s some during sex, some during an attempted rape with a severed head and some corpse nudity……..It varies from sexy to weird to gross.

Overall: “Re-Animator” is a cult classic with too many stand-out moments to be passed up. Even detractors of the genre tend to enjoy this one. Check it out! Just don’t watch it expecting a great film. Expectations is the greatest enemy of cinema.

3.5/4 Stars


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